In such known apparatus, the caller receives a timewise limited piece of recorded information from the called party by playing back the call answering text recorded on a magnetic sound carrier, such information being for example the duration of his absence, office hours information, a second or emergency address, etc. However, apparatus of the above-mentioned type, which can be designed relatively simple, are not able to store information from the caller, for example an order for merchandise, an urgent reply, etc., for the purpose of a later play-back by the called party, because a suitable storage section with the necessary control and switchover members is missing.
Often exists the desire to be able to record and to store with the help of an apparatus of the above-mentioned type at times information which is received through the telephone line during a call, without the necessity of requiring a purchase of a relatively expensive apparatus with a built-in storage section, which is used only very little.
It is already known for recording information arriving through the telephone line to connect to the apparatus for answering the telephone a tape recorder, in particular one of the amusement electronics. Such a solution has, however, the disadvantages of a vague switching having floating lines and an insufficient control over the tape recorder through the call answering apparatus, so that meeting the strict regulations of the telephone authorities is hardly possible or only at a great expense.
The purpose of the present invention is to work around the listed disadvantages and to produce an apparatus for automatically answering a telephone, which permits in particular the occasional storage of arriving information in a simple manner, without electric installation operations and by meeting completely the official regulations as to the construction and the use of call answering apparatus.
Inventively, the apparatus for automatically answering a telephone of the above-mentioned type is characterized by one housing part of the apparatus having an empty space for receiving a hand dictating machine, which contains a recording mechanism with a further magnetic sound carrier and a drive assembly for the further magnetic sound carrier, a control switch which is manually operable and has a switch position, in which a text spoken into a microphone is recorded on the further magnetic sound carrier, and two contact sockets of which the first one is provided for connection of a microphone and the second one for connection of an external supply voltage source, by arranging on an inner boundary of the mentioned space each one contact jack for the first or second contact socket and by providing control and switching members for guiding information which arrives from a connected telephone line to the first contact jack and a supply voltage to the second contact jack during at least one part of the time duration of the arriving information, in order to store the arriving information on the further magnetic sound carrier of the hand dictating apparatus.
Since such a hand dictating machine is being used only during a relatively short period of time as a dictating machine, its present use as a storage section for a pure call answering apparatus does not illustrate a limitation, but rather a better utilization of the dictating machine. However, it permits parties, which desire only in a limited degree, to record arriving information, without additional expense, without technical knowledge and without the necessity of vague connecting lines to immediately supplement the call answering apparatus with the storage function or afterward to use the hand dictating machine without changeover or the like in its actual function.